


Leo

by BluePlanetTrash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dad Lance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Reunions, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family, Teenage Parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-01-30 05:15:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: All of the paladins left someone they cared about on Earth but it couldn't compare to who Lance left behind. He didn't want his son to grow up alone but at this point he didn't have a choice. Did he?





	1. Chapter 1

Most of his dreams consisted of the same two faces. A beautiful tanned young girl with slightly wavy blonde hair and bright green eyes; and a giggling young boy with dark skin, chocolate brown locks and the same sparkling eyes as the girl. They reached out to him and called his name with smiles on their faces. He would run towards them, arms stretched out, his grin would falter as the girl would disappear from his sights but the boy would continue smiling and holding out his arms.  
  
“Daddy!” He would call; the smile never once faltering from his face, even though the dream would never last long enough for him to feel his father’s arms wrap around him. Lance pumped his arms frantically trying to sprint with all his might to the boy. He wanted to reassure him, kiss his forehead and tell him that he would be back soon. That he wasn’t going to disappear like his mommy. He could feel tears streaking down his face when the boy appeared to be getting farther and farther from his reach.

“Leo!” He yelled reaching forward trying in vain to grab his small arm in his hand and pull him closer.

“Don’t worry!” He cried. “Daddy will make it back to you, I promise!” As young as he was, he understood and nodded his head as he vanished in the distance. Lance stopped running and put his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. He let out a small choke when he heard a cry in the distance.

“I love you, Daddy,” the small voice came from the same direction. He looked painfully towards the voice.  
  
“I love you too chiquito,” he whispered as the world faded to white around him.

Lance’s eyes blinked open and he stared at the ceiling above him. His thoughts drifted to the image of the blonde girl and he pushed his palms into his eyes. He let out a slow breath and sat up. His hand clenched his robe above his heart as he bit his lip, trying to drown out the pain in his chest. His eyes squeezed shut and a single tear slipped down the side of his nose before he quickly wiped it away and stood up.

“You have to stay strong for Leo,” he whispered to himself, slipping his robe down his shoulders and picking up his baseball shirt. As he got ready, he remembered all the mornings he spent helping Leo get ready for school before he left for the Garrison. He felt terrible leaving his son for school; especially after losing his mother in a car accident, but he knew that in the long run, it would work out for the best. They wouldn’t have to worry about money and Leo would get the best care and education Lance could ever ask for. That is until they were shot out into space; now Lance constantly worried about his little boy, sure he was with his grandparents but he didn’t want Leo to grow up without a father and one that seemed to abandon him at that. He just needed to help with the fight against Zarkon and then they would be brought back to Earth and he could reunite with his son. He pulled on his jacket and started heading down the hall to the kitchen. When he entered he grabbed a bowl and filled it before sitting down at the empty table. Shortly after the rest of the paladins filed in, each of them giving him a smile and a nod which he returned.

“Whats on the schedule for today Princess?” He asked when she sat down in her seat.

“The Blade of Marmora believes they know where some important intel can be found,” she replied. “After we eat, we will meet on the bridge for a conference with Kolivan,” they all nodded in response and concentrated back on their meals.

“Would this intel help in bringing down the Empire?” He asked. She looked up from her food in confusion.

“I suppose it would, I don’t believe they would ask for our assistance if it did have something to do with Zarkon,” she affirmed. “Why are you so interested Lance? You aren’t usually worried about the significance of the mission,” she pointed out. Lance shrugged his shoulders and stirred the goo in his bowl.

“Well, I can usually tell the difference between rescuing prisoners and fighting the Galra,” he mumbled before stuffing the spoon in his mouth.

“Yes, well I believe the Intel will prove useful toward our efforts,” Allura gave Lance a reassuring smile. Lance gave a small sigh but nodded and let himself focus on breakfast instead.

* * *

Pulling on the paladin armour gave Lance a sense of protection and safety compared only to his home. He followed his fellow paladins onto the bridge where Allura and Coran already had the feed open, and Kolivan’s face up on the screen.

“Greetings Paladins,” he said nodding to the group. They nodded in return and sat in their designated seats around the room.

“Explain the situation, if you would Kolivan,” Allura said.

“Of course, we have received word from an inside source that there could be information on this outpost that could greatly increase our chances of defeating Zarkon,” he announced. He flicked his claw across the screen and the file popped into the castle, Allura brought it up revealing the outpost’s layout.

“We believe it will be a relatively simple mission, there doesn’t seem to be any live Galra on board, only sentries, and drones,” he continued.

“Doesn’t that seem a little strange?” Lance asked from his position. The others looked at him in confusion. “Well; if the information is as important as they say it is, wouldn’t they have actual Galra there to protect it?”

“We don’t know much about the Galran sentries, they could be just as effective as live beings,” Pidge commented shrugging her shoulders. “We should bring one back with us!” she said excitedly. The others chuckled at her excitement but looked at Shiro when he began speaking.

“Pidge, you, and Keith will go extract the intel. Keith will be your backup,” they both nodded in response and fist bumped with grins on their faces. Shiro grinned and looked between Lance and Hunk. “Lance and Hunk, we will be lookouts, it looks like there are three different entrances to the server room, Hunk and I will be on the ground floor and Lance you’ll be on the top floor,” they both gave salutes and Shiro gave his attention to Kolivan.

“Good luck Paladins, I hope this information aids you in our fight against Zarkon,” he signed off.

“We’ll use Green’s cloaking device to get close enough to the base without being spotted, does anyone have any questions?” He asked looking around the room. When no one spoke up they headed out towards the hangers and onto Green.

“Are you ready paladins?” Allura asked from Green’s dash. “We won’t be able to keep in contact with you during the mission because the distance will be too great,”

“Yes Princess, understood,” Shiro replied.

“Opening wormhole now,”

* * *

Infiltrating the outpost turned out to be the easy part, but it turned out to be absolutely crawling with sentries. They snuck through the halls taking out the bots left and right and dragged them out of sight. Eventually, they made it to the server room, easily taking out the guards stationed outside and crept into the room. After entering they quickly set up at their posts and Shiro motioned for Lance to advance to the next floor. He nodded and quickly made his way to his place, thankfully there were no sentries posted at his position. After a few minutes of radio silence, Keith’s voice came onto the coms.

“Guys, this bot just lit up,”

“The ones outside my door just did too,” Hunk said nervously as well.

“Pidge, any ideas?” Shiro asked.

“Just a second, maybe I can find it on the computer,” she responded. “I found the schematics of the sentries, they look like they were specially made for this complex,”

“Okay,” Keith said gruffly.

“Chill Keith,” she muttered, then a gasp. “They’re bombs! We have to get out now!” She yelled. As soon as the warning came, Lance slammed open the door and bolted down the stairs following his teammates. With a glance behind him, he saw that the memory device was still plugged into the system. His mind raced with visions of Earth and Leo’s face, and how it was endlessly drifting away from him. This intel could help them get back to Earth; they needed it, he needed it. He pivoted quickly, almost tripping right on his face as he raced back to the computer.

“Lance what are you doing?!” Shiro’s voice yelled through the coms.

“Keep going, I’ll meet you there!” He yelled back, not sparing them a glance. He leapt over the bots and yanked the device free. He knew that Shiro would be disappointed in him for possibly risking his life, but this was going to help them immensely. He sprinted past the doorway, ignoring the blinking red eyes of the downed sentries and only looked forward. He could see his friends in the distance and was glad that he wasn’t left as behind as he thought he was. Green was still crouching where she was left, with her mouth open, waiting to welcome the paladins back. They scrambled up the ramp and as soon as Lance was inside it snapped shut. They shot out into space a single tick before the first explosions started. They flew further away and watched in morbid awe as the entire outpost was engulfed in white-hot flames. Lance laid on his stomach, face to the ground, and sweat pouring down his face as he tried to catch his breath. He clutched the intel in his hand and slowly pushed out a breath.

“Lance,” Shiro’s stern voice made Lance’s head snap up to look at his team. Shiro and Keith had deep frowns on their faces, Shiro’s looking more troubled than Keith’s. While Pidge and Hunk had pain filled expressions tainting their faces. Shiro looked like he was about to speak before he closed his mouth and wiped his hand down his face.

“We will talk about this when we get back,” he finally said. Lance gulped and nodded his head in understanding. He got on his knees and looked down at the ground in shame. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he smiled when he saw Hunk giving him a sad little smile. Hunk got down on his knees and engulfed Lance in his arms, burying his head in the crook of Lance’s neck.

“I’m okay buddy,” he whispered reassuringly. He heard Hunk give a little sniff but he nodded and drew back, keeping his arm around Lance’s shoulders as they rode through the wormhole.

“Welcome back paladins, how was the mission?” Allura asked popping up on the dash.

“Fine Princess, we got the intel,” Shiro said politely, not showing the previous disappointment aimed at Lance. Allura gave them all a wide smile.

“Excellent, Coran and I will meet you in the hangers,” she said before her feed disappeared. Pidge flew Green through the airlocks and into the hanger where they could see the Alteans waiting beside the computer. They gave them all smiles as they descended, but they fell when they noticed the unusual stoic attitudes of the paladins.

“Is everyone alright?” Coran asked as they trudged to the computer.

“Yes Coran, we’re going to talk about it later,” Shiro replied as Pidge jumped onto her chair and booted up the system.

“Lance,” she said holding out her hand. He dropped the stick in her hand and stepped back as she plugged it in. His heart stopped when only a blank screen opened up.

“It looks like the data got corrupted, we didn’t get anything,” Pidge stated, typing rapidly on the keyboard trying to find anything that might be hidden. Lance took a step back and clenched his fists at his sides.

“It must have happened when I took it out,” Lance muttered looking down. “I’m so stupid,” the others looked at him in shock.

“What do you mean Lance?” Pidge asked. “This isn’t your fault, this happens all the time,”

“No, I must have done something, I fucked up somewhere and we lost key information in defeating Zarkon,” he responded not looking at the other paladins.

“There will be other chances Lance,” Shiro said reassuringly putting his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “We’ll get there eventually,” he gave him a hesitant smile.

Eventually. Eventually wasn’t good, eventually could mean years and years from now. He would miss everything; his first day of school, his first relationship, his first car. He might not get to teach him how to ride a bike, or how to defend himself, or how to read. All the important moments in his life he had with his parents, Leo might never get to experience because they’ll eventually take Zarkon down.

“I can’t do eventually, I need soon!” Lance suddenly yelled, making the other jump. “We need to defeat Zarkon, so I can go home!” He yelled finally losing his cool.

“Hey! We all want to go back to Earth Lance!” Keith growled stalking forward. “We all have families we want to get back to, but right now they’re better off without us because we are saving lives out here,”

“You don’t understand,” Lance whispered looking straight into Keith’s eyes. Keith’s teeth ground together and he grabbed the ridge of his chest plate pulling him forward.

“What don’t I understand Lance?!” He yelled. Lance ripped Keith’s hand off of him and threw it away.

“I HAVE A SON!” He screamed in Keith surprised face. “I have a son on Earth who thinks his dad is dead or abandoned him! God knows what the Garrison told my family,” he looked around at the shocked paladins around him. He gazed at Shiro with sad, tear-filled eyes.

“So I can’t do eventually Shiro; my boy needs his father because he doesn’t have his mother anymore, and I will not let my son become an orphan,” he said softly. He turned and left the hangers, the silence filling the space behind him. They turned to Hunk after a moment and looked to him for answers, but he only shook his head looking down at the ground in shock.

“I had no idea,” he whispered. “He would go away every weekend, but he told me it was personal, so I never asked,”

“We need to talk to him guys,” Keith said still looking at the spot where Lance was standing.

“Yes, he’ll need us now more than ever,” Shiro agreed coming up to stand beside Keith. “We need to apologize as well, he must have been feeling this way for a while and we didn’t notice anything,” the paladins stood and exited the hangers, leaving the Alteans behind.

“Coran,” Allura said. The man looked up from where he was looking sadly at the blank monitor screen.

“Yes, Princess?” He asked. They started making their way out of the hangers, she turned towards the direction of the bridge. He gave her a confused stare looking at the paladin’s backs as they headed towards the quarters and lounge.

“We’re setting a course to Earth,” she announced giving the man a wide smile. An equally as wide smile stretched across his face and he gave a little bow.

“Yes, Princess,”

* * *

Tears were rolling down the sides of his face as his head rested on the back of the lounge couch. He would give anything to see his son again and to hold him in his arms. He stared blankly at the paladins when they stood on the floor above him; like him, they changed out of their paladin armour into their regular clothes. They crawled onto the cushions beside him Shiro and Hunk on both sides of him, close enough that they were touching shoulders with him. Keith and Pidge sat on the floor in front of him, each putting a hand on his knee. They waited for him to lift his head up and look at them all.

“I am so sorry Lance,” Keith started. “I shouldn’t have assumed to know what you’re going through, I knew that you were homesick but I didn’t try to understand past that,” he stated looking into Lance’s eyes, which widened a bit at the apology.

“No, its okay,” he said. “I shouldn’t have yelled, I just, I want to see him and for him to understand that I’m not abandoning him and that I’m not going to be gone forever,” he admitted. He shakily put his hand up to his face to try and hide the tears still rolling down his cheeks.

“You said that his mother was already gone, do you mind if I ask you about that?” Shiro asked putting his hand on his back.

“No, its okay, it happened a while ago,” Lance sniffed and leaned back into the hand rubbing his back. He breathed in trying to gain his bearings.

“You don’t have to tell us, Lance,” Hunk said sadly, tears welling in his eyes at the sadness pouring off of his best friend.

“No, I want to, you guys are my family, and I want you to meet him someday so I want you to know,” he stated forcing a wobbling smile to his face. They each gave him an encouraging smile in return. He once again took a deep breath and slowly breathed out.

“Her name was Racheal,” he started with a smile filled with love. “She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen; blonde hair, green eyes, she had so many freckles, just like Leo. That’s the name of my son by the way, kind of funny isn’t it,” he gave a weak little chuckle. 

“We were both fifteen when he was born and I was never the same, it was like I found a piece of myself that was missing from my life. I would do absolutely anything for him, I loved him from the moment I heard the news from Racheal. I was going to marry her too; my mamá was going to let me use abuela’s ring and everything,” Hunk let out a low whine and he squeezed his eyes shut against the tears in his eyes. His chin wobbled and his hand grabbed onto Lance’s.

“She and her parents were coming back from her postpartum checkup, the hospital is a long drive from home and it was getting dark out and they didn’t even see it coming. A drunk driver was driving on the wrong side of the highway and struck them head-on; Nathan and Anne died instantly but Racheal made it long enough for me and Leo to see her one more time. It was so hard to say goodbye to her; I thought I was going to marry her someday and we would live the rest of our lives together,” his voice cracked and leaned forward with a sob. He could feel Pidge wrapping her arms around his leg and hugging it trying to offer support. Keith’s arm wrapped around his neck and pulled his head and shoulder into a hug.

“You don’t have to tell us anymore,” he whispered reassuringly. You could hear the wetness in his voice, and the tear tracks on his cheeks. Lance sniffed in consideration, but shook his head and sat back up.

“Its okay, the worst is over,” he said giving them a sad grin. “Sure, it was difficult to raise Leo on my own, but I had my parents to help me and I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I got to see him every weekend in the Garrison, and I knew that I was doing the best job that I was able to. I would do anything for him and I need to get back to him soon before he forgets who I even am, and only knows what I look like from a picture,” he looked mournfully into the distance before glancing at the people around him. Not surprisingly their eyes were filled with tears and they clung to wherever they could on the blue paladin’s body.

“We’re so sorry Lance, we promise we’ll do whatever it takes to get back to Earth the fastest,” Shiro proclaimed grabbing Lance’s other free hand. The others nodded in agreement and gazed at him with sad eyes. Before he could respond Allura’s voice came onto the speaker.

“Paladins, please meet us up on the bridge please, it is of great importance,”

“Let’s go, guys,” Lance said when no one moved. Their worried stares followed him the entire way up, but they instead widened in disbelief when they walked through the doors.

“Allura, Coran,” Lance breathed out walking forward as if in a trance.

“Welcome back to Earth Lance,” Allura said quietly. “Go, be with your son,” she prompted. He turned to her in surprise and looked around seeing smiles coming from the others.

“Do you all want to meet him?” He asked biting his lip.

* * *

The journey to Lance’s home was filled with the quiet chatter of descriptions of Lance’s family, his mother, father, and siblings but mostly Leo.

“He’ll love all of you,” he reassured them. They descended onto a field, a short distance away they could see a house with people already rushing out and towards the ship to investigate it. Lance sucked in a breath when he saw his papá cautiously creeping forward before he knew it he was sprinting across the field and into his arms. He bowled him over and ended up landing on his chest, trembling and sobbing his heart out. Big, familiar hands found their way into his hair and started petting it back.

“Lance?” His papá’s voice shook and Lance lifted his head to look at his face with a teary smile.

“I’m home papá,” he said. He was crushed into another hug and he let out a laugh. They got up and he was immediately swarmed by his family, his mamá pulled him into a bone-crushing hug along with his siblings. He stepped back from the noogie he was receiving from his oldest brother.

“They told us you were dead,” Rosa said placing her hand on his cheek. He pressed into it and gave her a small smile.

“Well, they lied,” he replied. He took her hand in his and looked around in confusion. “Where’s Leo mamá?” he asked.

“I’ll go get him,” she replied with a smile, turning back towards the house. The paladins came up behind him and Shiro patted him on the back.

“Isn’t that the guy on the poster in your room?” Maria suddenly asked pointing to Shiro. Lance’s face immediately flushed red and he slapped his hand across Maria’s mouth. He looked back at the paladins who each had amused smiles across their faces.

“You have a poster of Shiro on your wall?” Keith asked chuckling a bit.

“No!” He denied immediately shaking his head.

“Yes, he has the action figure of him too,” Marco added, grumbling when Lance covered his mouth as well. They blinked and burst out laughing except for Shiro who mad a confused look on his face.

“I have an action figure? Hah, tight,” he chuckled. Lance pouted at all the laughing figures around him still not removing the hands from his sibling’s faces.

“Daddy?” A quiet voice asked. All the voices stopped and looked at the young boy standing hand and hand with Rosa.

“Leo,” Lance smiled getting down to one knee and opening his arms. That was all it took for the three-year-old to bolt to the teenager. He wrapped his little arms around his father’s neck and clutched onto the familiar green jacket. A strong arm lifted him off the ground and cradled him firmly to his chest, the other pressed his head into the crook of his neck comfortably. It wasn’t long until Leo was wailing in relief and Lance was shedding tears alongside him. He sobbed until he fell asleep against Lance’s shoulder, gripping the material of his jacket with white knuckles. Lance shushed and bounced him lightly, he turned to face the Alteans and the paladins.

“I don’t know if I can leave him again guys,” he stated sadly. The other paladins smiled and shook their heads.

“We understand Lance, you have to do what you need to,” Shiro said.

“Lance if I might,” Coran said walking forward. “The Castle has catered to generations of Altean children, along with your help I believe it could become an excellent place to raise Leo, that is if you wanted to,” he suggested shrugging his shoulders. Lance only gaped in response before turning to look at his family, who were all giving him reassuring smiles.

“I may not know where you’ve been, of what you’ve been doing, but I know that one day you’ll be back on Earth,” Rosa said. “If you believe that this is the right choice, take it,” he looked down at his son and smiled thinking of all the adventures they could have and everything he could teach him.

“Thank you mamá,” he sniffed as her arms went around him. With a cry, his family squeezed around him offering him their reassurances and acceptance. He waved them goodbyes as they traveled as a pride back to the blue lion. The walk up the ramp felt lighter with the presence of his son and he sat down at the pilot’s seat and carefully took off. Just as before the cockpit was filled with silence, but this time it was light and filled with happiness. As he was walked out of blue behind his teammates, Leo stirred and looked up at his father.

“Where are we?” He asked softly looking around curiously.

“Leo, welcome to the Castle of Lions,”


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m going to tuck him into bed for the time being,” Lance announced looking down at the drooping eyes of his son. “I’ll come find you guys when he’s up for good and I can introduce you to him,” he said quietly bouncing Leo gently in his arms. The paladins nodded and he turned and walked out of the hangers towards the quarters. As he walked out the doors, the others all turned to each other. Coran, Hunk, and surprisingly Shiro’s faces were lit up with excitement; while Allura, Keith, and Pidge had reluctant grimaces on their faces.

“So now we’re going to have to live with Lance and his spawn, great,” Pidge muttered looking off to the side.

“Oh come on Pidge! This is going to be great, we’ll be able to teach him so many things!” Hunk gushed, she only gave Hunk a deadpanned look which he ignored. Keith crossed his arms and looked worriedly at the doors where Lance and Leo left.

“Are you sure that he is going to be safe up here? We are fighting a war after all,” he commented. Coran popped up beside him with a smile.

“Not to worry Number 4, the Castle Ship is equipped to handle the raising of all sorts of species even during times of great violence,” he stated twirling his mustache. “There are certain parts of the ship that can be locked down for safety,”

“Still raising this kid is going to be a pain in the ass,” he grumbled looking away.

“Keith,” Shiro huffed. “Not all kids are difficult,”

“You’re the one who told me that kids were hell to raise,” he defended himself.

“Actually I said that you were hell to raise,” Shiro stated with a quirked eyebrow. Keith let out an indignant noise and a blush rose to his cheeks. He gave Shiro a hard punch to the bicep which he received with a grin.

“Anyways,” Hunk drawled gaining the attention of the rest of the paladins. “I’m going to go cook Leo a welcome dinner,”

“Or, I could cook him a traditional Altean dish,” Coran suggested with a flourish. The paladin’s visibly cringed.

“Um, I think he might need something sort of familiar for his first meal,” Pidge said inching away from the man.  

“Yah, going from home-cooked meals to space food is difficult,” Hunk added heading towards the exit.

“Well, someday then,” Coran said with a huff. The paladin reluctantly nodded before escaping behind Hunk.   
  


“Someday,” Coran promised himself in the silence of the hanger, ignoring the bored expression Allura was giving him.

* * *

When Lance returned with Leo in his arms they were scattered around the kitchen watching Hunk show off his cooking skills. He had just taken a pan of cookies out of the oven to cool and was now expertly chopping strange looking vegetables. They looked over and smiled when they saw Leo gazing around in awe and Lance looking down at him with udder adoration shining in his eyes. Leo noticed them and immediately tucked his face into his father’s shoulder to hide his face. They stood up, Hunk abandoning the chopping board and wiping his hands on his apron.

“Guys this is Leo,” he said with a flourish gesturing to the shy child. There were various soft greeting coming from the paladins, not wanting to startle the already shy child. Lance grinned and poked him in the side making him twitch and cautiously peek his face around again. Lance put him down on the ground and took his hand to walk him closer to the team.

“Leo, these are all your aunts and uncles,” he said with a beaming smile. The paladin’s eyes widened and when Lance looked at them their faces grew matching smiles. Leo’s eyes sparkled as he looked into his father’s. He walked him to the two Alteans who were looking curiously at the waddling figure.

“This is Princess Allura of Altea, and Royal Advisor Coran!” He said gallantly raising a fist in the air like he does when telling Leo a story. “This is their Castle, and we’re very lucky that we have such strong friends up here in space,” he crouched down next to him and rubbed his back.

“You’re a princess?” He asked quietly staring at Allura. She giggled and crouched in front of him alongside Coran.

“Yes, I am,” she replied holding out her hand which he took with a look of pure wonder. “I welcome you to the Castle of Lions,”

“Thank you,” he answered shyly shuffling his feet. He looked up at her hesitantly, glancing at her face then back at the ground again.

“What is it?” she asked grabbing his attention.

“Can I be a princess too?” He finally asked, a blush lighting up his face. Allura looked startled for a second before she let out a series of laughs. Leo looked glumly down at the ground thinking she was laughing at his question. He looked up when he felt something go around his head. He brought his hand up to feel the metal of Allura’s tiara now resting comfortably on him.

“Anyone can be a princess, Leo,” he said giving him a sweet smile which he returned. She ignored the worried, helpless expression that was on Lance’s face and waved him away when she saw that he wanted to return it to its owner.

“You make quite a lovely one as well!” Coran stated giving the boy a low bow. Lance sighed and gave up, opting instead to finish his introductions.

“This is Uncle Hunk,” he said picking him up again and carrying him to the yellow paladin who could barely contain a squeal at the sight of the child. “He can fix anything, or cook anything you could possibly want, and he’s daddy’s best friend,”

“Hey there, Leo,” he said quietly raising his hand in greeting. Leo hesitated a moment before raising his hand too and waving. “I was just making you something to eat, do you wanna try some?” he asked with a grin. Leo hesitated and looked up. At Lance’s nod, he looked back at Hunk and gave a firm nod.

“Yes, please,” Hunk turned back to the counter and grabbed one of the cookies that came out of the oven and finished cooling. He held it out to the boy who took it with a thinly veiled look of disgust, it wasn’t hard to tell it was because the outside was dark green with what looked like bright purple grass on top of it.

“Thank you,” he said anyway, even though it looked like he wanted to drop it right there.

“Don’t worry buddy, it tastes way better than it looks, I promise,” Hunk said crouching a bit in order to be at eye level with him. Leo looked into his eyes as if weighing his options. In the end, he bit into the cookie and immediately his eyes widened and he looked at the yellow paladin in complete wonderment.

“Wow! That’s really good!” He cheered giving Hunk a wide smile. Hunk stood and puffed his chest out in pride. “Can I have another one?” Hunk was about to answer and give him one but Lance cut in first.

“You can have another one after dinner, okay buddy?” Lance answered looking down. Leo gave a short pout but nodded sullenly. Hunk ruffled his hair and Lance turned to face Pidge.

“This is Aunt Pidge,” he introduced her. Standing in front of her, she and Leo were standing at the same height. She gave a nervous wave not moving to do anything else. Unlike with Hunk, Leo didn’t need a second thought to be comfortable and immediately gave her a happy wave and a cheerful hello. “She’s super smart, she’ll be able to answer anything you ever ask her, she’s a super great friend too!” Pidge blinked and smirked proudly before pushing her glasses up.

“Wow!” Leo stared at her in amazement. “Can you really?” She looked at the starstruck expression on his face and felt her heart melt a little bit.

“Of course I can, I’m the smartest one on this ship!” She exclaimed putting her hands on her hips. They all gave a slight snort of amusement before he started approaching Keith.

“Don’t worry champ, in a year, you’ll be taller than her,” he stage-whispered to Leo who gave a light giggle in response.

“This is Uncle Keith,” Lance said ignoring the cry of indignation that came from Pidge. He had his arms crossed and only gave a short nod to the boy, who tilted his head in confusion. Lance gave a snort of amusement.

“Ignore the bad boy outside Leo, he’s actually a big softy and would protect you at all costs. If you ever feel scared for any reason; go to Uncle Keith, I promise that he would do whatever it takes to protect you,” he said earnestly bumping his forehead with his son’s. Keith looked on with shock at hearing Lance describe him. Although he just found out about and met Leo, it was true that he would never let anything happen to him while he was with them.

“Really?” Leo asked amazed looking at the red paladin. He reached out a tiny hand which Keith took gently.

“Thanks, Uncle Keith,” Leo said with an open-mouthed smile. Keith couldn’t help the widening of his mouth and returned the smile full force.

“See, I told you! Total softy,” Lance said with excitement, happy that his son got along with Keith even if he couldn’t.

He was excited to introduce Leo to Shiro; as it turns out Lance wasn’t Shiro’s biggest fan, not when Leo was around. It was a feat in itself that he hadn’t noticed him yet; patiently waiting at the edge of the group, enough to stay out of the way but still be engaged with what was going on.

“Okay buddy, I know that you’ll know this guy,” he said still facing Keith who gave him a look of confusion. He turned to the man and his son let out a gasp when his eyes caught onto Shiro’s face. He wriggled enough that Lance had to put him down and he ran to Shiro’s feet. He didn’t say anything and just stared up at the man. Shiro chuckled and lowered himself to crouch on one knee in front of Leo.

“You’re Takashi Shirogane,” he breathed in amazed. Shiro quirked his brow when he pronounced his name without flaw and looked to Lance who gave a shrug in response.

“Yup, that’s me,” he said holding out his left hand instead of the prosthetic right. “Its very nice to meet you,”

With stars in his eyes, he rapidly shook Shiro hand with both of his own. Leo began babbling about how much he loved Shiro and his piloting, and how cool he thought he was when he went to space and that he was sad when they said he was gone. Shiro closed his eyes and grinned feeling blush flush his cheeks in embarrassment. The frenzied speech suddenly came to a halt and he opened his eyes in confusion. He sucked in a small breath of air when he noticed that Leo was staring at Shiro’s Galran arm with curious eyes.

“Oh, um,” he stuttered trying to come up with a lighthearted excuse for the boy.

“Are you okay?” Leo asked quietly looking up at the baffled leader.

“Um, yes?” he replied. Leo just nodded before touching the metal of the arm and looking up with a small smile.

“That’s good, you look even cooler than before,” he admitted. “Your hair and the mark on your face makes you look cool too!” he patted Shiro’s where his scar ended on his cheeks. Shiro felt a bit of water build in his eyes as he looked at Leo, so amazed by someone as broken as him.

“Wait,” he said suddenly pausing in his exploration. “Are you my uncle too?!” he asked excitement overwhelming his face. Shiro chuckled again and pushed his hand through his hair.

“Yup, Uncle Shiro,” he confirmed. Leo gasped and looked back at Lance who was almost cackling at the sight of the two. Leo practically hopped back to Lance with glee and he swept him into his arms to cuddle him to his chest. The paladins looked on with a newfound sense of hope in their chests. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be as rough as they thought.

“Let’s go see the lions, Leo,” Lance suggested nuzzling their noses together. Leo let out a tinkling laugh as they walked towards the door. He looked over Lance’s shoulder and waved to the team as they walked out of the kitchen, a giant smile lighting up the entire room. There was complete silence as they stared at the door.

“I would die for that child,” Allura deadpanned after a moment.

“As would I Princess,” Coran said beside her completely serious.

“He’s an angel, an absolute angel,” Hunk cried from where he began cutting vegetables again.

“I can’t believe that came from Lance,” Pidge stated bluntly as she stared at the door.

“If anything ever happens to this kid, I’m going to kill anything that gets in my way. Except for Lance, I’m not letting him lose his parent again,” Keith announced to them. “But, anything else. Dead,” the others nodded in acceptance while Shiro sat frozen in the same position as before, but now with tears of happiness streaming down his face and his hands covering his mouth.

“I’m the cool uncle,”


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn’t often that Lance was away from Leo. He tried his hardest to be with him at every second to try and make up for their lost time. However, he was still a paladin of Voltron and as such, he had duties and missions to take care of. Whenever something came up Leo would be passed off to whoever was doing the least or had nothing to do entirely. It wasn’t that they minded or anything if nothing else it gave them the chance to bond with the little kid.

A majority of the time, the paladins would be splitting up to take on different missions and Leo was put in the care of either Allura or Coran. The first time that he was left with the two of them, they each glanced nervously at each other before Coran stepped forward to scoop him up.

“How would you like to see your father’s favourite part of the ship?” He asked enthusiastically. There was barely a moment’s hesitation before Leo cheered in agreement and Coran whisked him out of the door, leaving Allura alone at the control panels with the mice.

“Rude,” she pouted crossing her arms.

“Where are we going?” Leo asked looking up at Coran’s face.

“To see the stars,” Coran said dramatically making a sweeping motion with his free arm. Leo’s eyes went sparkly and his mouth dropped open in awe, despite the fact that he was already in space. When he entered the room, he waved his hand, the stars glimmering to light around them.

“Whoa,” he breathed out in amazement his eyes darting around the room as he trailed in. Coran watched him with a fond smile, easily seeing Lance in the small boy. He toddled around reaching his hand up to pass through the stars.

“Would you like to hear stories about your father?” He asked, sitting down on the shallow step. Leo looked back at him with excitement and raced back to sit on Coran’s knee. He looked up at him with glittering eyes waiting for Coran to unravel the tales of Lance’s life.

“Did you know that one time, your father and Uncle Hunk rescued a whole planet?” He asked with a dramatic flare. Leo let out a small gasp and shook his head as he grabbed unto Coran’s shirt. Coran gave him a small grin and started retelling the story how Lance and Hunk told it at dinner the next night. He started with the battle against Zarkon, and how they tried to return back to the ship but was split up. He told him how Lance and Hunk crashed through the sheet of ice and sank to the bottom of the sea. As soon as he brought up the mermaids, Leo’s eyes bugged out of his head and his mouth dropped open in amazement.

“Mermaids!” He shrieked with a smile. Coran looked down at him fondly.

“Fan of mermaids are you?” He asked teasingly. Leo nodded his head vigorously and Coran continued on.  He sat Leo gently down on the stairs and hopped up, adding to his dramatic storytelling by performing a few fighting stances and kicks as he told him about the battle with the sea serpent. Leo leaned forward eagerly as if he was watching the real thing.

Even though halfway through his performance, he saw the rest of the paladins returning from the battle and go to seek them out he didn’t stop his show. Leo was so enraptured that he didn’t even notice the five of them come in the room, his focus solely on Coran. With a silent laugh, the five of them settled down behind the two of them to watch the show unfold.

As Coran finished his story, he sat down beside Leo and placed his hand on top of his head to ruffle his hair.

“When is daddy coming back?” He asked looking up at him. Coran let out a laughed and turned him around to see the rest of the paladins sitting on the floor behind him. With a happy yell, he hopped up and ran over to Lance, bowling him over onto the floor with a hug.

“Hey buddy,” he said with a laugh threading his fingers through his hair. Leo let out a happy squeal and snuggled closer to his dad despite the layer of armour separating them.

“Alright buddy, let’s go change, thank you for watching him Coran,” Lance said standing up and picking Leo up into his arms.

“Anytime Lance,” Coran said with a smile as they walked out of the door. “What a wonderful boy,” he said as an afterthought which was quickly followed by a snort from Pidge.

“Why? Because he listened to one of your stories?” She teased. The others started snickering beside her and covered their mouths with their hands. Coran turned to look at them with blank eyes.

“This is why you’ll always be referred to as numbers,” he said before he left the room.

* * *

There was still the odd time that Coran was unable to take care of Leo when the paladins were out. So the responsibility fell on Allura. Who despite pretending to know what is happening 99% of the time, is literally just a teenager that pulled a Captain America and skipped ten thousand years. She never had siblings and the only experience she really had with children was when Coran was transforming into one and that didn’t exactly go that well.

The only experience that she really had for keeping another creature alive was the balamara and the mice. Since she didn’t think that Lance would appreciate her weaving quintessence into his son, she opted to bring Leo to meet the mice, maybe they would be able to provide the little boy with entertainment while she tried to figure out what to do with him.

It wasn’t like she was being given this responsibility for the rest of her life or anything but she still didn’t want to be the reason that he got hurt or something. Maybe she would mess up and Leo would hate her or maybe she would mess up and Lance would hate her.

“Aunt Allura?” A small voice pulled her from her thoughts and she looked down to where Leo was playing with the mice.

“Yes, Leo?”

“What are their names?” He asked, holding Chulatt in his hands carefully. Allura smiled and sat down on the floor next to him barely acknowledging the mice as they climbed on to her legs and sat on the knee closest to Leo.

“The one you’re holding is Chulatt,” she said pointing to said mouse who squeaked and raised their paw in the air. Leo let out a little giggle and carefully pet them behind their ears.

“This is Platt, Plachu, and Chuchule,” she said ordering them off and pointing to each of them. With a careful hand, he pet each one of them and said hello to each of them.

_**‘This child is going to kill me’**_  Allura thought as she watched him with a smile.

“Do you like tricks?” She asked after it seemed like he was done. He looked up at her and gave her a single nod. With that, the mice jumped up and started performing their circus act. Leo’s mouth dropped open and his eyes lit up as the mice circled around the two of them.

“Wow,” he breathed out in amazement.

“What about games?” She asked next, Leo gave her another excited nod and she looked over at the mice. Chulatt scampered forward and started doing their Lance impression making Leo giggle.

“That’s daddy,” the mice squeaked in victory and Allura watched as Leo started guessing at all of the impersonations of the paladins.

She grew quite fond of her time with Leo and the mice. It seemed like Leo bonded with the mice as well since he could most likely be found with at least one of them at all times.

* * *

It seemed that apart from Lance; Hunk was the one that spent the most time with Leo. Whenever Lance had to run off to do something, Hunk was always the first choice to babysit and he was good at it too.

Whenever they were stuck together, their first choice was always to go to the kitchen and bake or cook something for when Lance would be back to pick Leo back up. That’s exactly what they were doing this time too, unbeknownst to everyone else on the ship, it was nearing Father’s Day on Earth.

Hunk decided that cookies would be the best option since he had almost nailed down the ingredients and it would be easy for Leo to help too.

As soon as Lance was out the door of the kitchen with a wave, Hunk and Leo were getting to work. Hunk was forced to do most of the work while Leo wasn’t looking because he told him that he wanted to make them himself. He found it so cute, how fiercely determined Leo was to finish the gift himself. At this point though, Leo could stab Hunk in the kneecap and he would find it adorable.

The whole thing was going off without a hitch and Lance wasn’t supposed to be back until much later. That way they would be able to cool them and wrap them in some of the foil Allura found for them earlier.

While they were waiting for the cookies to be done, Hunk pulled out some pages and crayons and set them down in front of Leo. When he saw that he started drawing, Hunk turned back to the kitchen and started cleaning up until Leo called him over again. When he got over to him, he saw that he had messily folded it over so the edges weren’t meeting up but it still looked like a card. Without a word, he held up the blue crayon to Hunk. He smiled and took it before leaning over the table and opening the card.

“What do you want me to write?” He asked with a smile.

“To daddy,” he said pointing to the top corner away from the main picture.

“This looks great Leo,” he commented as his eyes roved over the picture. Leo smiled proudly.

“Thanks!”

“Anything else?” He asked after he finished writing. Leo shook his head and took the crayon back before he started scribbling again.

The magic thing about an alien oven, you know, besides everything about it was how quickly everything was finished. Lance returned with plenty of time for everything to be finished and wrapped up perfectly. At first, they were going to wait until the next morning to present Lance with his gift but as soon as Lance stepped foot into the kitchen, Leo had his hand and was dragging him over to the table where the cookies were sitting alongside his card.

“Whats this?” He asked picking up the card. His smile was blinding as he looked at the drawing of him and Leo holding hands in front of Blue.

“Wow, this is amazing,” he gushed crouching down to sweep Leo into a hug. Leo let out a shriek of laughter and snuggled into Lance’s arms.

“Thanks so much buddy,” he sighed contently.

Hunk quietly snuck out of the room with a smile, waving at Lance as he pressed Leo closer to his chest.

* * *

The more time that Shiro spent time with Leo, the more he missed the times he took care of Keith when they were younger. Sure, he was a pain in the ass most of the time when they were kids but the ability to utterly amaze children with the simplest things was a novelty that was never going to wear off.

All he had to do to keep him entertained was activate his arm and Leo was entranced for a whole half an hour. Most of the time he brought him to the training deck with him and went against the gladiators for the whole time until Lance came to pick him back up. It was amazing to see all will to find a different activity disappear as soon as he started punching bot parts everywhere.

This time, however, as they walked into the training deck Leo did something different. He grabbed Shiro’s Galra hand and looked up at him with big green eyes.

“Uncle Shiro, can I be a hero too?” He asked with a quiet voice. To be honest, Shiro was a bit taken aback. He kneeled in front of Leo and put his hand on his hair to give it a short ruffle.

“A hero?”

“Like daddy,” he replied staring into Shiro’s eyes. “And you,” he declared, pointing a finger at Shiro’s chest. Shiro could just about feel his heart melting in his chest.

“Anyone can be a hero Leo,” he said simply, giving him a smile.

“How?” He asked looking confused, his head tilting slightly. Shiro huffed out a laugh at the question.

“Well, a hero is someone who is brave like you were when you left home to come with us,” he started.

“A hero is someone who is kind like you were when you made cookies for your dad for Father’s Day, they can make friends with anyone they meet, they are someone who makes everyone happy, just like you do with everyone here,”

“You’re already a hero Leo,” he finished. Leo looked at him with amazement before rushing forward to collapse in his arms. Shiro huffed with a smile and carefully hugged him back, still not used to having to deal with such a delicate being. He paused when he heard a small muffle against his chest and he pulled back to look down at him.

“Pardon?”

“Can’t fight,” he pouted, his cheek squished against Shiro’s chest.

At that, Shiro’s mind started racing.

**_‘Should I teach him how to fight? I started karate at 3, it couldn’t hurt. Would Lance approve?’_ **

He looked down and saw that Leo’s eyes were practically sparkling with determination.

**_‘Imma do it. Imma create a karate kid,’_ **

“Do you want to learn?” He asked. Leo excitedly nodded his head and jumped up. Shiro was happy to discover that Leo was just as eager as Lance to learn and had to perfectly match Shiro’s stances before they were allowed to move on to anything else. By the time that Lance got back, he was teaching him some very basic footwork.

“Shiro, are you teaching my kid karate?” He asked, his foot tapping impatiently. Shiro’s eyes darted around, avoiding Lance’s stare as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yes?” He trailed off before Leo was running forward.

“I’m gonna be a hero!” He cheered wrapping his arms around Lance’s legs. Lance blinked and looked up at Shiro who just gave him a shrug.

“You’re already a hero Leo,” Lance said picking him up.

“Uncle Shiro said that too,” he replied pointing back at the man.

“Did he now?” Lance grinned, his eyes sliding away from Leo to land on Shiro again.

“I only speak the truth,”

“But seriously, is this safe for him?” He asked walking up to Shiro, concern in his eyes.

“Don’t worry Lance, I started karate at three too,” he assured him putting his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Of course you were a beefcake since day one,” Lance pouted with a huff. Shiro let out a loud bark of a laugh.

“Well, technically since year three but I’ll take it,”

“Thank you for watching him Shiro, it really helps,” he sent him one last smile before turning and striding out of the room, Leo waving at him over his shoulder.

Shiro happily waved back, thinking about what he could teach him next time.

* * *

Despite how much it seemed that Lance was unable to take care of Leo, he was with the boy about 85% of the time when they weren’t away on missions. The other 15% he spent mostly napping, cleaning, and catching up on his marksmanship. Even with these percents, Keith hadn’t had the pleasure of spending anytime taking care of Leo since he was aboard.

It wasn’t really that he was upset or anything but the way that everyone else seemed to cherish spending time with the boy got him curious. He didn’t think that Lance was intentionally leaving him out either, he knew that Lance would prefer to drop him off with Hunk or Shiro, now that he was learning karate from him.

He shot up from his bed when he heard the Castle’s alarms going off and rushed to the bridge where Allura was frantically speaking with a panicked Shiro. He and Lance had gone off on a scouting mission earlier that day and by the looks of it, things didn’t go as they had planned.

“Coran has a pod ready,” Allura told Shiro as calmly as she could. Shiro was panting and looking back over his shoulder to check on who he guessed to be Lance.

It was.

What their informants didn’t tell them was that the planet they went to go investigate was populated with life. Dangerous life at that. From what Shiro could tell them, they had been walking through the planet’s forest and out of nowhere a creature had charged at them and Lance was caught and mauled by it. Lance was able to shoot it a couple of time before going completely limp and Shiro struck at it with his arm, getting it to back off enough for him to snatch Lance away and sprint back to the lions.

They were successful in not letting Leo see Lance before going into the pod but while he was in the pod was a different story. He didn’t think that he would ever see such a defeated and terrified looking expression on the kid but there he stood; in front of the glowing pod, his little hands bunched into his clothes and tears rolling down his face.

“Daddy?” His trembling voice echoed through the room. The others bit their lips to stifle any sounds. It hurt to see the normally bright, happy little boy stand in front of his injured father, looking to the universe as though the pain was all too familiar. It clicked then, that Leo had already lost his father once.

Abruptly, he spun around tears still streaking down his face and marched over to Keith. He looked up for a second before wrapping his arms around Keith’s legs in a hug. Confused, Keith slid down the wall he was leaning against and sat on the floor. There was barely a second before Leo was clambering onto his lap and leaning against Keith’s chest.

“Um…why?” Keith asked awkwardly. Leo didn’t pick his head up to answer, instead, he squished his cheek against Keith’s shoulder and clutched onto Keith’s shirt and jacket as much as he could.

“I’m scared,” Leo said shakily. Keith blinked in confusion before he remembered when Lance introduced them to Leo.

**_‘If you ever feel scared for any reason go to Uncle Keith, I promise that he would do whatever it takes to protect you,’_ **

Keith swallowed and carefully wrapped his arms around Leo, protectively cupping the back of his head.

“He’s going to be fine Leo,” he said quietly. “Everything is going to be okay,”

That’s what broke the dam and suddenly Leo was wailing. He pressed his face into Keith’s neck, his hands trembling violently where they were caught in Keith’s shirt. Keith bit his trembling lip and held Leo closer. He couldn’t break down right now. He had someone he had to protect.

* * *

Just like Keith said; Lance was okay and was out of the pod within a few more hours. As soon as Lance fell from the pod, Leo was able to calm down and stop crying. The same couldn’t be said for his father, who realized that he almost left his son alone for the second time no matter how unintentional it was and refused to put Leo down for hours afterwards.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my Tumblr too!: https://blueplanettrash.tumblr.com/


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